ing him from having any concurrence or efficacy in our salvation: for, if this should be true, the powerful working of the Holy Spirit can in no sense concern either our justification, or everlasting happiness. For, how can it be said that the Holy Spirit doth co-operate to our salvation, since all our good and happiness was procured by Christ's death; not only before, but without all manner of respect had to our regeneration and sanctification, by the power of the blessed Spirit. Therefore, by this doctrine, if we be any thing at all beholden to the Holy Spirit, it is only for this, that he is pleased now and then, by fits, to be a messenger or intelligencer, to discover unto us what Christ alone hath purchased for us. 47. But I forbear to enlarge myself further in this point; and, indeed, I have already done too much wrong to the honour and dignity of this feast, not only in mixing the business of Good Friday with it, as I did in my former part; but also (as I now have done) in taking in the matter and employment of Whitsuntide too. Suffice it, therefore, that the sending of the Holy Ghost was an especial exercise of that power, which was given Christ at his resurrection; by the influence and virtue whereof, we do restrain and appropriate the merit of his death to our own good and benefit. 48. Now I would not be mistaken, as if I said, that the resurrection of Christ, precisely taken for that individual action, whereby he was restored to life and glory, was then effectual and powerful to produce those admirable effects: for, that being a transient action, past and finished many hundred years since, can very improperly be termed capable of having such effects ascribed to it, as have since, and shall to the end of the world be wrought in God's elect. Therefore St. Paul shall be my interpreter, in Rom. v. 10. saying, “If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life;" that is, by that glorious life which began at his resurrection. 49. For as in the matter of satisfaction, we ascribe our reconciliation to his death especially, yet not excluding his former obedience and humiliation; but naming that, as being the complement and perfection, terminating whatsoever went before; so, likewise, in Christ's exaltation, though there were divers degrees, and ascents, and stages of it; yet we especially take notice of his resurrection, because in that Christ took his rise, as it were, and was then * a bridegroom coming out of this chamber, "rejoicing as a giant to run his race." His goings out indeed were from the grave, but his circuit is to the ends of heaven, and nothing is hid from his heat and virtue. He illuminates every man that cometh into the world: "He was made (saith St. Paul) a quickening spirit;" cherishing, actuating, and informing us with life and motion. By the influence and power of his life he undergoes, as it were, a second incarnation, living and dwelling in our hearts by his grace, and reigning powerfully in our souls by faith. 50. And hereby he even shares his kingdom, his power, and his victory with us: for (saith St. John) "this is the victory whereby ye overcome * Psal. xix. the world, even your faith." Christ is not content only to destroy in us the works of darkness, to dispel the clouds of ignorance and error, or to rectify the crookedness and perverseness of our wills; neither yet to implant in us a heavy, inactive, sleepy harmlessness, a dull, lethargic innocence; but withal, endues us justitia germinante, with a fruitful, budding righteousness, and works in us, in the expression of St. Paul, both *vñoμovýv The Tidos, a patient, unwearied hope, not hasty nor discontented with expecting; and KÓTOV TES ayáns, a painful, laborious love; and pyov TŪS TiOTEC, a working, sprightful, vigorous faith, whereby we violently lay hold on the promises. And in this sense the same apostle saith, that as t "Christ died for our sins, so he rose again for our justification;" that is, one chief end of Christ's resurrection, in respect of us, was to work in us a lively faith, whereby we might be justified and acquitted from our sins. 51. And yet the power of Christ's life leaves us not here neither: nay, all this is performed only to make us capable of greater blessings yet. For by our sanctification and new birth we are (saith Tertullian) ‡ rcstitutione inaugurati, destined and consecrated to a glorious resurrection. Hereupon St. John calls holiness the first resurrection, whereby sin is destroyed: and it is a pawn of the second, whereby death also shall be swallowed up in victory. By the first, the sting of the serpent is taken away, which is sin (as St. Paul saith); "The sting of death is sin;" and, when the sting is * 1 Thess. i. 3. + Rom. iv. 24, Tertull. De res. carnis. gone, the serpent cannot long outlive it; for by the second resurrection that also is destroyed. 52. But you will say, How is death destroyed? Do not all men die? Do not all men see corruption? You may as well ask, How is sin destroyed ? For, have not all men sinned, and come short of the glory of God? Nay, do not all men sin, how righteous soever? And, if they were rewarded according to their own demerits, would they not all come short of the glory of God? Most certainly true: therefore, to say the truth, as yet, neither sin nor death are destroyed, but only the dominion of sin, and the victory of the grave. And thereupon the apostle, contemplating the conquering power of Christ at his resurrection, saith not, Oh death, or Oh grave, where are you? (for a little travail would serve the turn to assoil that question) but "Oh death, where is thy sting?" How comes it to pass, that thy poison is not so keen and mortal, as it hath been? that it is so easily, though not expelled, yet tempered and corrected by the healing bezoartical virtue of grace? And thou, "O grave, where is thy victory?" Though thou hast given thine adversary the foil, though thou hast gotten him under thee, yet thou shalt never be able to detain him long: for, "behold, a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." He will ransack the most private reserved corners of thy treasure; and though thou mayest consume and devour our bodies, yet he will force thee to vomit and disgorge them again; he will not leave one portion, one morsel of them in thy stomach and entrails. * 1 Cor. xv. 55. 53. I know the ingenious and learned Paræus, because he would not suffer any portion of the merit of Christ's death to be extended and meant to the ungodly; or, that he, by the fruit of his passion, should obtain any power over them, will therefore, consequently, exclude them from the efficacy and power of his resurrection and life: he will not allow them to be raised by the power of Christ, but only by the justice of God to their own condemnation: so that, by his reckoning, the great business and work of the last day shall not wholly lie upon Christ's hands to perform, but shall be parted and shared between the Christ and the justice of God. power of 54. I am confidently persuaded, St. Paul in this point was not of his mind, when he saith, "As in Adam all have died, so by Christ shall all (all, without exception) be made alive again." And, "As by man came death, so by man also cometh the resurrection of the dead." Indeed, I wonder Paræus would not likewise find some shift to exclude Christ, as well from being a judge to condemn the wicked: for, with as much reason, and as great ease, he might have given him a writ of ease, a discharge from that office as well as the other. 55. And now I could wish I had said nothing all this while (and likely enough so could you); but it grieves me, that the portion of time allowed me, will not suffer me, in any reasonable proportion, to contemplate the wonderful mercy and goodness of God; who, to do us good, has given such power to our nature in Christ, to make a new heaven, and a new earth, to restore a new generation of creatures, ten times more glorious |